Personalities

Affleck to play Batman in 'Man of Steel' sequel

Warner Bros. announced Thursday that the 41-year-old actor-director will star as a new incarnation of the Dark Knight in a film bringing Batman and Superman together.

The studio said Affleck will star opposite 30-year-old Henry Cavill, who will reprise his role as Superman from "Man of Steel." The movie will also reunite Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White and Diane Lane as Martha Kent.

The big-screen DC Comics superhero mash-up was first revealed by director Zack Snyder at last month's Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Production on the untitled film is expected to begin in 2014 for release July 17, 2015.

It won't be Affleck's first time in superhero garb. He played a blind Marvel crime fighter in 2003's "Daredevil" and portrayed 1950s Superman actor George Reeves in 2006's "Hollywoodland."

Affleck's "Argo," which he starred in and directed, won the Academy Award for best picture this year.

Spacey: TV must adapt to viewer demand

LONDON - Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey says television has overtaken cinema as the home of quality character-driven drama, but the industry risks failure if it doesn't recognize that viewers want control over what they watch.

Spacey told the Edinburgh International Television Festival on Thursday that the success of his political thriller "House of Cards" - released in a single burst of 13 episodes on video streaming service Netflix this year - showed that viewers "want freedom."

"If they want to binge - as they've been doing on 'House Of Cards' - then we should let them binge," he said.

Spacey is the first actor invited to deliver the festival's keynote speech - an invitation he attributed to the success of "House of Cards" innovative distribution model and television's creative renaissance.

He said shows like "The Wire," "Dexter" and "Breaking Bad" proved television had taken over from the movies in terms of sophisticated storytelling, but argued that this "golden age" was at risk if the industry did not respond to the ways new technology, the Internet and social media had changed viewing patterns.